Musings (ramblings) on community

It seems that belonging where you live is something that creeps up on you. When we moved to our house, we didn't know anyone living in the suburb. Holden was 4 and Phoebe was 1, and we hadn't even considered the fact that Holden would be starting school shortly. Hol went to daycare in the next suburb, and I got to know a couple of parents well enough to say hello to, but not much more. Then suddenly it was time for Holden to start school, and lo and behold, there's a primary school about five minutes walk away. Until then we knew it only as The Place with the Organic Markets Where You Queue For an Hour for a Coffee.

I duly joined the P&C, but hardly ever went to meetings. I did reading with Kindergarten when I had spare time (the joys of being self-employed) and came to quite like the idea of schools and teaching. By the end of Holden's first year of school I had decided to apply to do a Masters of Teaching. During his second year I lurked around school (when I wasn't working or studying) - the student teacher's version of insider trading, I suppose. Last year Phoebe started in Pre-school, I did my Teaching internship there, and then worked (paid!!) there for all of Term 4.
This year, although my main source of income is Writing For A Bank (you know Which Bank), I teach the odd casual day up there.

Unavoidably, I now know the name of every child in the school. I know a lot of the parents. I know (and like) all the teachers. I am the Treasurer of the P&C. I cannot go grocery shopping without bumping into someone I know, from school, or our street (or both).

Frankly, I've always been a bit of a bolter. I like change. I like setting up a new house. I didn't have a typical suburban childhood, and I didn't know it could be so, um, nice.

I can see that the kids are starting to feel worried about leaving all their friends and their familiar surroundings, although Holden thinks Hobart may be ok because there are skate parks there. Phoebe is being bribed with the prospect of horse-riding.

And Andrew and I keep reminding ourselves that half the trick to becoming part of the neighbourhood is having primary age kids - you have to take them to school, you can meet kindred spirits in your fellow parents, you can get involved ...
Still, I will miss the life we've had here.

As a postscript, our landlords, who have refused to sell us the house for four and a half years(we started asking shortly after we moved in), recently invited us to make an offer. We decided against it. I'll go into those reasons another time, as this post is already too long.